The sculptures of Apollonia (Albania): Town history mirrored by mobile stone monuments

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jochen Griesbach
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 538105611

The sculptures of the city of Apollonia (Albania) form the most important conglomerate of its kind in the south-east of the Adriatic in terms of extent and spectrum of the tradition. The project aims at the systematic photographic and scientific cataloguing of this group of material. In addition to the various types of sculpture and reliefs, other sculptural objects made of stone such as decorated building elements and stelae with mere inscriptions will also be included in the investigations. For classical archaeology the largely unpublished collection of monuments promises to provide significant new insights into the dynamic processes of appropriation and transfer of cultural models at a (cultural-)geographical intersection between East and West. In high density, the spectrum of the sculptures extends from the 6th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The coherent examination of the sculptures not only enables a well-founded assessment of the cultural and socio-historical development of Apollonia. Rather, the focus of the project is primarily on the strategically important port city because, as a cultural hub, it makes connections between northern Greece (Asia Minor) and Magna Graecia (Central Italy) comprehensible and meaningful in a hitherto unrecognised way. Although the city itself, which was not built over in post-antiquity, has only been explored selectively through excavations and surveys, many of the sculptures can be assigned to specific contexts and/or functions. This makes the different communication spaces of the monuments and different (social) groups of patrons and recipients tangible. Thanks to the intensive preparatory work of the German-Albanian project team, there is now the opportunity to complete the comprehensive documentary cataloguing and scientific analysis of the art works and their imagery and make them publicly accessible. On a practical level, this means a close interlocking of professional photographic recording procedures and the scientific competences of a network of German-speaking experts in Germany and beyond. The methodological approach in the form of an art-historical and cultural-historical contextualisation of the artefacts is flanked by scientific analysis procedures, which primarily serve to determine the provenance of the stones and allow important statements to be made about resource management. The findings of the project will promptly be incorporated into the relevant online research database iDAI.objects (“ARACHNE”), into a printed general catalogue with a detailed overarching synthesis, and into an archaeological guide to Apollonia. The project makes an important contribution to saving the cultural world heritage in Albania from decay and neglect through its scientific appreciation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants